The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

The Perilous Politicization of the Military - Jonathan F. Keiler

by Jonathan F. Keiler

The openly leftist
orientation that the Obama administration continues to force on the
armed forces not only damages morale and national security, but is
potentially a serious long term (if not permanent) phenomenon.

We
are looking at a permanent structural change in the American armed
forces that will not only weaken the nation’s ability to defend itself,
but endanger constitutional principles. A year ago in an article
titled “Obama’s Generals,” I described an American military
increasingly politicized under the current administration. The evidence
at the time was already abundant: the military’s refusal to identify
the Fort Hood shootings as terrorism, the coddling of Bowe Bergdahl, the
relief or prosecution of politically unreliable generals, and
unrealistically rosy appreciations of the campaign against ISIS being
the major points. If anything, things have worsened since, most
especially with the purely political decision to remove all restriction
on women in combat, and as noted in a recent AT posts the mostly
symbolic but still significant decisions by the Navy to issue “gender neutral” uniforms and to ignore regulations regarding naming ships
to honor Democrat politicians and leftwing social activists. Add to
this, ongoing and increasingly aggressive recruiting policies that
mandate “diversity” and the situation becomes scary.

Arguably there has been some good news
here and there, but even that must be taken with a large grain of
salt. Last year Congress passed legislation allowing for the soldiers
wounded at Fort Hood to receive Purple Hearts, and the Army belatedly
acknowledged former Major Nidal Hassan’s terrorist ties, though has yet
(to my knowledge) formally remove the “workplace violence” moniker it
attached to the shooting, despite the fact that Obama late last year
reluctantly acknowledged the Fort Hood shooting as a terror attack.

Similarly, in the Bergdahl case, also after incredibly long delays, the Army decided to try
the soldier at a General Courts Martial. This is seen by some as the
“old Army” reasserting itself in a case that reeks of liberal political
influence. Perhaps this is so. However, the decision to try Bergdahl
only came after he badly embarrassed the Army by going public
with his account of his desertion and capture on NPR, practically
forcing the hand of convening officer, General Robert B. Abrams.
Moreover, though the decision to try Bergdahl was made last December
(four days after the first NPR appearance), the trial will not take place until August,
scarcely demonstrating a hard charging prosecution in a relatively
simple case. Even assuming Bergdahl is convicted, his attorneys will
argue that Bergdahl has successfully served on active duty for over two
years since his release by the Taliban in May 2014, and thus deserving
of leniency, undermining the contention he is a bad soldier. This might
sound ridiculous to some, but the jury will have to consider it, and it
is part of the reason why military prosecutions are usually
expeditious, though the Army has not demonstrated any sense of urgency
in the case.

Meanwhile
the low level war against ISIS goes on. The U.S. continues operate
under ruinous rules of engagement which result in countless wasted
strike sorties, wearing out men and equipment to no gain. While ISIS is
probably weakening under the bombardment, the campaign’s military logic
is held hostage to politically correct dogmas. The Pentagon goes along
with this, hyping over-optimistic casualty reports with promises that ISIS is close to breaking. While the Pentagon and some commentators trumpet the arrival of B-52 bombers in the region, those expecting carpet bombing will be disappointed. The B-52s replace more capable B-1s which flew many hours
but dropped only a small fraction of the munitions they are capable of
throwing at the enemy. The B-52s will do the same. By contrast,
Russia’s politically incorrect but effective Syrian intervention seems
to have accomplished much more, in a much shorter time span, with
inferior equipment, money and support.

I got to see some of the strain on Marine pilots, ground crew and aircraft when I visited the Beaufort Marine Air Station
a few months ago. While there I also learned a lot about recruiting,
and especially political influences that are pervasive and potentially
permanent. Beyond the already divisive, controversial and
standard-destroying policy of allowing women in all combat billets is
the military's intensive drive to fill the ranks with as many women and
other categories of “diverse” recruits as possible, at almost any cost.
Diversity is now effectively the primary goal of military recruiters,
even beyond meeting basic quotas. Recruiters that enlist too many
qualified and ready applicants (read Caucasian males) that don’t meet
the description of “diverse” can be sanctioned for going after easy
pickings. Recruiting goals are first defined by diversity rather than
by quality, availability or cost. In a situation in which the Marines
say over 70% of young American adults are unqualified for service, and
in an era in which officer quality is a serious concern, this program verges on folly.

Officers and senior enlisted who wish to progress must effectively buy into this program,
and the folks they recruit and advance will too. While diversity is
not a bad thing (I live and work in very diverse environments) its empirical benefits
are extremely debatable, and when adopted forcefully as a matter of
policy, it is a completely political matter that reflects a strong
leftist bent. It may be desirable to have a military that reflects
demographic reality in the country, but effectively favoring some
categories of citizens willing to serve over others is a recipe for
ineffectiveness, tension, conflict and potentially serious political
turmoil. That is not a price worth paying for a cherry-picked military
selected to fit an idealized demographic template.

While
to some extent the services have always been and will continue to be
organizations affected by politics, among the many departments of
government, the services are probably the most sensitive to political
influence in terms of maintaining a free society. The openly leftist
orientation that the Obama administration continues to force on the
armed forces not only damages morale and national security, but is
potentially a serious long term (if not permanent) phenomenon. Senior
officers have to be sympathetic to the administration’s moves in order
to advance, and junior officers are oriented politically both by
selection and doctrine from the get-go. On the other hand, mid-grade
officers who do not buy in are forced out via the evaluation process or
through their own disgruntlement.

While plenty of former senior officers (and Defense secretaries) have criticized the administration, and some were eventually maneuvered out, I’m not aware of any who explicitly resigned on principle,
which at least might offer some encouragement for those disturbed by
this process. Whether senior officers continue to soldier on based on
loyalty to the military-political system or just plain careerism is hard
to say (and certainly in many cases both are true), but the practical
effect of going along to get along allows this extremely dangerous
politicization to snowball, a process which will only worsen if another
Democrat is elected in November.